QUOTE OF THE DAY … don’t expect lots of these just coz’ I did two in two days …

“For those who do not yet understand the UK perspective, do not be misled into thinking that those of us who are presently on the edge of despair for what remains of our country would not fight the last good fight to save it.”Posted by permanentexpat at March 15, 2008 02:37 PM

… and is about this business. While at this last link just here, please go to all the comments and especially the one by the Finn whom his government has its eye on.

Many Libertarians, especially those who come to us from what I suppose I have to call “The Left”, despise patriotism, perhaps because they have been “educated” by unbearably-misguided people such as “Terry” Eagelton, and other such alleged “academics” whose names I can’t remember on a Saturday evening and have not the urge to wiki so as to correct my defects (you can do it yourselves.)

These mistake the urge to want to be of and with one’s own kith and kin both in belief and in nearness, with suppposedly outmoded and atavistic urges which (they aver) have no place in Utopia. This position seems to contradict the seemingly instinctive drives of such things as nationalism.

Indeed. This is a small digression, but I wonder sometimes whether “Militant Islam”, as described by those who aspire to govern us here, is in fact a purely nationalistic impulse (rooted as it is in [more than one, but a bit less than many more than a few] nations which are closely associated historically and ethnically) which happens to be particularly self-confident at this moment, and so is therefore doing well in the increase-of-population-stakes? There are even those who would contend that Islam is not a religion but a pre-capitalist desert-regions-survival-guide. I do not know.

However, nobody who is in favour of free seech ought to be othe than fanatically opposed to any efforts of the Finland “govern”-“ment” to limit access to “racist” sites overseas or even in Finland.

One response to “QUOTE OF THE DAY … don’t expect lots of these just coz’ I did two in two days …”

I was going to post a lengthy discursion on nationalism, but realized the futility of this when the question “Which nationality?” arose.

I have no idea of the number of base pairs I’d have to sequence to detect “British Nationality”, nor what the specific gene sequences are.

I don’t usually read ‘Samizdata’ because it is on occasion hostile to critical rationalism, in my experience.

We can all agree that censorship is unacceptable (and for practical purposes impossible). The whole point of the great “Internet Kiddie Porn” scare was to give the authorities a massive “wedge entry point” to violate everyone’s Internet privacy. To censor for _anything_ you have to be able to scan _everything_. (80% of the stuff on the net is FBI ‘dangles’).

Download “TorPark” (the anonymized version of “Firefox”) and you surf anonymously.

There may well be an innate urge towards “group-think.” But individualism and humanism insist that others be treated on their merits. I have no idea what “British Nationalism” is. I have a better idea as to “English Nationalism.” I have a better understanding of “European Nationalism.”

But all these “group-thinks” are shaky. All four leaders in the battles of 1066 were Vikings. Whichever side won, you’d have a Viking king.

As to Islam, you can thank Henry Kissinger for Islam’s resurgence.

Oil was $3 a barrel in 1973, when Kissinger engineered the surrender of Vietnam. This left a power vacuum in the Middle East which Kissinger tried to fill by appointing the Shah to be America’s local hegemon. To finance this meant the US giving the green light to OPEC to ramp up oil prices. Emboldened by US weakness, the Arab States attacked Israel and ramped up oil prices some more.

Ever since, it’s been the same story. There is no “oil shortage.” What there is, is a chronic shortage of _will_ to resist these predations. The US elite don’t mind because most of the oil money goes into buying US stocks, shares and other assets: fully 20% of Wall Street is now owned by Saudi investors.

Having successfully overthrown Saddam’s regime, the US goes crazy and puts Kissinger Associates’ Managing Director Paul Bremer in charge of the place, with unlimited power to do whatever he liked.

HerkyBirds were flying in fully loaded with US currency. Bremer then fires the entire Iraqi Army and the entire Iraqi Police Foce with a week’s notice, and all Hell breaks loose. More vast increases in the oil price. At this rate, we’ll all be working for (or owned by) Saudi Arabia, a despotic family business headquartered in the Middle East, which peddles the more virulent ‘Wahhabist’ variety of Islam because it doctrinally legitimizes permanent Saud family control of the Holy Places of Islam.